Bengaluru: Data provided by the union MHRD minister Mr. Prakash Javedkar on Monday in the Loksabha over the total number of children out of school (OoSC ) in the state, has uncovered some disturbing facts. According to the data presented by the minister based on the IMRB survey 2014, a total of 1,22,139 children are out of school in Karnataka.
According to the data, the majority of the children out of school are from the Scheduled Caste, followed by the Christian community. According to the data given by the minister, the estimates on OoSC (reported by three independent surveys commissioned by MHRD in 2005, 2009 and 2014), indicate that there has been a substantial reduction in the number of OoSC in the country. The number of OoSC in 6-13 age group was 134.56 lakh in 2005, which reduced to 81.50 lakh in 2009. Further, the number of out of school children reduced to 60.64 lakh in 2014. The total reduction in the number of out of school children is 73.96 lakh. This reduction is across the states except six States and UTs including Karnataka.
Interestingly, according to a survey conducted by the SSA, Karnataka, it was informed that only a little over 9,000 kids are out of school in the state. “We are not aware of this data presented by union MHRD minister in the Loksabha. But as per our records, in the last two years, the number of children out of school has come down drastically following various interventions taken by the DPI and SSA under different state and central schemes,” explained an officer from the state education department.
